of a black-billed cuckoo’s nest taken at the base of a willow
sapling, near the shore of Lake Goodenough, in Union County, S.
Dak., and says: “I have observed a rather marked tendency for the
black-billed cuckoo in this region to build its nest within a
very few inches of the ground or on the ground. This nest in the
photograph was several inches above the ground outside the clump,
but it might be regarded as a ground nest, because there was quite
an accumulation of dirt and weed growth immediately below it. Of
course, I have found nests of this species at heights about level
with a man’s eyes, also.”
A. Dawes DuBois has sent me the data for eight nests of this
cuckoo, as found by him in Tompkins County, N. Y., and Hennepin
County, Minn. Two of them were 5 feet above ground, one in the top
of a bush covered with grape vines on the steep slope of a ravine
and the other in a small larch, in the midst of an extensive
willow thicket, half a foot from the trunk of the tree on a branch
where two branchlets were attached. One of the lowest two was
not over a foot above ground, among weeds 2 feet high; the nest
was supported by a small dead branch that had fallen from a tree
and lay hidden in the weeds. Others were at intermediate heights
in more normal situations. The nest in the small larch tree he
describes as made first of some cottony seed pods (ripened willow
catkins), then a main structure of woody twigs, and lined with
finer twigs, a few grasses and bits of the cottony seed pods; two
tufts of dry grass, with roots attached, were at opposite sides of
the rim.
Major Bendire (1895) says:
The nests of the Black-billed Cuckoo appear to be slightly
better built than those of the Yellow-billed species; the
platform is usually constructed of finer twigs, the soft
inner bark of cedar, fine rootlets, weed stems, etc., and
there is generally more lining. This consists of the aments
of oak, white and black ash, and maple, willow catkins, and
the flowers of the cudweed or everlasting (_Gnaphalium_),
dried leaves, and similar materials. The majority of the
nests are placed in rather low situations, mostly not
over 6 feet from the ground, on horizontal limbs of bushy
evergreens, pines, cedars, and hemlocks, or in deciduous
trees and shrubs, such as the box elder, chestnut, thorn
apple, and beech trees; also in hedges, briar and kalmia
patches, occasionally on old logs, and now and then even on
the ground.
A rather high nest was found by P. G. Howes (1908) near Stamford,
Conn. It was about 15 feet from the ground, at the extremity of a
limb of “a scrubby apple tree at the foot of a hay-covered field.”
He says that, in his experience, the nest “has always been lined
with maiden-hair ferns.”
H. W. Flint, of Stamford, Conn., in a letter to Major Bendire
(1895), mentions a still higher nest, and says: “I know of one spot
in this vicinity where the Black-billed Cuckoo might almost be said
to breed in colonies--a sloping hillside near a traveled road. Here
I have found seven nests of this species within an hour, none of
them placed over 3 feet from the ground. I have also frequently
found their nest on a fallen limb, the top of which was resting
upon underbrush. As an exception to their low nesting, I once found
a nest containing two well-feathered young and two fresh eggs over
18 feet from the ground, placed in the top of a cedar tree, in a
dense thicket of other cedars.”
As already mentioned under the preceding species, both cuckoos
often lay their eggs in each other’s nests. Thomas McIlwraith
(1894) mentions three cases of parasitism on the part of the
black-billed cuckoo, as observed by Dr. C. K. Clarke, of Kingston,
Ontario; he says:
The first birds Dr. Clarke observed being imposed upon were
a pair of chipping sparrows, who raised the young cuckoo at
the expense of the family.
Next came a pair of yellow warblers, whose _protégé_ soon
crowded out the legitimate occupants of the nest. They were
raised from the ground and placed within reach, but the big
boy required all the attention of the foster-parents, and
the others died. During the whole period, the old cuckoo
was always to be found flitting about in a restless manner,
as if she had some doubt in regard to the ability of the
warblers to take care of her child.
The third case was another pair of chipping sparrows, in
whose nest the cuckoo was observed sitting, and from which
she did not move till the observers almost touched her. The
result was the same as in the other cases. The young cuckoo
threw the sparrows out as soon as he had strength to do so.
Eggs of the black-billed cuckoo have also been found in nests of
the wood pewee, cardinal, cedar waxwing, catbird, and wood thrush.
Under the preceding species will be found a note, published by
J. L. Davison (1887), describing the finding of a nest occupied
by a robin, a yellow-billed cuckoo, and a mourning dove. Bendire
(1895) published an almost identical account of such a remarkable
occurrence, on the authority of the same observer, but with the
black-billed substituted for the yellow-billed cuckoo. It seems
hardly likely that such an unusual happening could occur with both
species in exactly the same way, and leaves us in doubt as to which
species of cuckoo was involved.
_Eggs._--The black-billed cuckoo commonly lays 2 or 3 eggs; sets
of 4 or 5 may sometimes be the product of a single pair; but the
larger numbers that have been found in their nests, 6, 7, or even
8 eggs, were probably laid by two or perhaps three females, as
these birds are notoriously careless about laying in each other’s
nests. Bendire (1895) says: “The eggs of the Black-billed Cuckoo
are more nearly oval than elliptical oval, and shorter and rounder
than those of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and much more deeply
colored. Like these, they are unspotted; the shell is thin and
fine grained, with little or no gloss. Their color is difficult to
describe exactly, varying from nile blue to pale beryl green, and
occasionally the shell shows a decidedly marbled appearance, caused
by different shades running into each other. * * * Aside from their
deeper color, they are also readily distinguished from eggs of the
Yellow-billed Cuckoo by their smaller size.”
Eggs that I have seen in collections I should describe as “pale
glaucous green,” “dull opaline green,” or “microline green” and
varying from oval to elliptical-oval. Some of these, as well
as some of those included in the following measurements, may
be yellow-billed cuckoos’ eggs, as the two are probably not
always recognizable with certainty. The measurements of 54 eggs,
presumably of this species, average 27.18 by 20.57 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure =30.48= by =22.86=,
=22.61= by 18.80, and 25.40 by =18.29= millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation is shared by both sexes and lasts for about
14 days. As the eggs are often laid at infrequent intervals, it is
not unusual to find young birds of different ages, or even eggs and
young, in the same nest. Both sexes assist in the care of the young
and are devoted parents; even when an egg is hatched by a foster
parent, the mother cuckoo does not seem entirely to lose interest
in her youngster, as related above. On the other hand, William H.
Moore (1902a), of Scotch Lake, New Brunswick, says: “I have known
this bird to desert its young when the nest was molested, and
after the young died they were covered with leaves by the adults.”
Cuckoos are careless about removing the cast-off shells, which are
often found in the nest after the young have hatched. The young
remain in the nest 7 to 9 days after hatching and then become quite
precocial. While in the nest the young are fed by their parents in
a rather peculiar manner, of which Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1932)
writes:
When the old bird returns, the food, which is very likely
to be _live_ caterpillars, is concealed in the throat. As
a nestling raises its head with open mouth and rapidly
vibrating wings, the parent thrusts its bill deeply into
the open maw and the young bird grasps securely the smooth
bill of the old bird, in which action it is greatly aided
by several soft papillae or disks in the roof of the
mouth. Then, with a slow, pumping motion, the squirming
caterpillars are transferred with some difficulty from one
mouth to another. The process is a slow one, the birds
being attached a minute or more and the transfer aided,
apparently, by a sucking effort on the part of the nestling.
When a young Cuckoo opens its mouth widely there are
visible, in the roof of the mouth, a number of large,
flat-topped, white papillae or tubercles, arranged
symmetrically, the function of which is plainly to make
it possible for the nestling to maintain its hold on the
parent’s bill, which is smooth and tapering. A small
finger-tip inserted well down into the open, upturned mouth
of a nestling is seized tightly and a sucking motion is
distinctly perceptible. [Pl. 10.]
Prof. Francis H. Herrick (1935) has made a thorough study of the
home life of the black-billed cuckoo, and I cannot do better than
to quote a few of his remarks on the behavior of the young. After
describing the peculiar appearance of the newly hatched young, he
says:
More remarkable than anything about its appearance,
however, is the muscular vigor and endurance the cuckoo
displays at this tender age, for it seems to be able to
withstand heat, hunger, and general neglect that would be
fatal to the young of most wild birds. I soon found by
experiment that when barely three hours out of its shell
this little cuckoo could hang suspended by a leg or even
by a single toe for upwards of a quarter of a minute, and
that it could raise itself up until its bill was well over
the twig that it grasped with both feet; and in a short
time it was able to raise itself on to the twig, or even to
draw itself up with the power of one leg, which implies an
extraordinary muscular development. * * * Though born blind
and essentially naked, the young black-bill is neither deaf
nor dumb, and in proportion to its size it is probably the
strongest and most enterprising altricial nestling on the
North American continent. * * *
Like other nestlings, the cuckoo lies flat, with toes
clenched, and holds to its fragile nest with a firm grip.
Attempt to remove it, and it is likely to pull its nest to
pieces rather than loose its hold; or it may even drag out
a fellow-nestling, reminding one of crayfishes or lobsters,
in the handling of which one may also get a living chain.
Should you succeed in displacing a bird, its claws will
rapidly open and close in its desperate search for any
object to clasp, for a contact stimulus afforded by any
solid body can alone satisfy this strong reflex. * * *
At the age of about six days the nestling cuckoo has
reached that peculiar transitory state which we may call
the “quill” or feather-tube stage. * * *
Towards the end of this brief and unique stage the
behavior of the young bird changes in marked and rapid
fashion. It indulges in new attitudes, acquires new call
and alarm-notes, shows fear, and begins those preening or
combing movements which are to effect a relatively sudden
and altogether surprising change in its appearance. * * *
In one instance the first preening action was noticed on
the sixth day; thereafter this kind of activity became
frequent, and the bird would comb every “quill” within
reach, drawing the mandibles over it from base to apex.
Then, with apparent suddenness, at the close of the seventh
day the transparent horny sheaths began to give way at
their base--instead of wearing off gradually from apex
to base in the usual fashion--and were raked off by the
mouthful. * * *
Fear may become manifest as early as the sixth day, when
a frightened bird will sometimes clear the nest at a
bound and, seizing a branch with both feet, hold firmly
to it. Should it drop to the ground, it can make off with
surprising speed. If captured and held, it will emit loud,
explosive squeals, than which nothing seems to arouse its
parents to quicker attack or bolder measures. Replace it in
the nest, and it spreads its wings, stiffens, and lies flat
with every feather-tube on end; and it will repeat these
defensive measures as often as it is touched or disturbed.
* * *
When from seven to nine days old, with half of its feathers
unsheathed, the cuckoo suddenly leaves its nest and enters
upon a climbing period, which lasts about a fortnight or
until it is able to fly. At one of my observation stations
I saw three young birds leave their nest in succession,
and the procedure in the case of the oldest one was
particularly interesting. This bird, which had been sitting
in the bright sunshine, for the day was not uncomfortably
warm, of a sudden moved to one side of its platform. After
having combed off several mouthfuls of feather-sheaths,
it sat upright for some minutes and gazed into its outer
world. Then, directing Its attention to a small branch and
ducking its head as if contemplating flight, with a leap it
cleared the nest, and, catching hold of a twig, with both
feet, it swung free with acrobatic dexterity. In another
moment it had pulled itself up and was comfortably perched.
If such a first perch is placed in the shade and the young
bird is promptly fed, it may keep to it for a long time;
but it can move about, and should it drop to the ground, it
can mount to safety again.
The vertical position assumed by young cuckoos, probably as a
hiding pose, has been noted by several observers, but the following
incident reported to me in a letter from Frederic H. Kennard,
is quite unusual; he says: “I had just been investigating a big
highbush blueberry bush, looking for a nest, when I discovered,
to my surprise, a fledgling black-billed cuckoo, squatting on a
twig about 6 feet from the ground. The little bird, which really
was not able to fly, was squatting on a limb, just as little birds
ordinarily do; his wing feathers were fairly well developed,
but his tail was only about a quarter of an inch long. When I
parted the branches a trifle, so that we could see him better,
and finding out that he was discovered, he promptly assumed an
almost perpendicular position, with his neck stretched out almost
unbelievably and his bill almost straight in the air; and there
he sat, immovable, with his bill in the air like a bittern, only
oscillating a trifle when the branch on which he was sitting was
disturbed a little by the breeze.
“My youngest son, Jack, being interested in the peculiarities of
cuckoos’ feet, attempted to pick him off the limb; the little bird
fluttered to the ground, where he picked him up. When we had duly
examined and discussed the arrangement of his toes, Jack endeavored
to put the little fellow back exactly where he had been when we
first disturbed him. Then, as he endeavored to replace him on the
limb, he suddenly went limp and, apparently, passed out in his
hand, frightened to death, as I supposed. He was perfectly limp
and my impression is that his eyes were closed. Jack finally, in
trying to get him to stay on the limb, hung him across the limb
by the neck, with his head across one side and his body down the
other side. Just then there came a little breeze, the body dropped,
and that little bird simply scuttled in under the ferns. It was
the most astonishing performance that I ever witnessed, first the
stake-driver attitude, as a protective position, and then playing
dead.”
_Plumages._--Professor Herrick (1935) says of the newly-hatched
young cuckoo: “Although most birds emerge from the shell wet with
the amniotic fluid, the cuckoo just mentioned came out quite dry.
It was two and one-half inches long and weighed less than a quarter
of an ounce (or 7.4 grams). Its skin was coal-black, sparsely
sprinkled with sharply contrasting snow-white ‘hairs’--in reality
the feather-tubes of a rudimentary down which never unfolds. These
primitive feather-tubes are later pushed out by those of the
juvenal contour feathers and for about a week are borne upon their
tips, thus giving them a peculiar flagellate appearance.”
When about six days old, the young cuckoo “bristles like the
fretful porcupine in every feather-tract”; these bristles are the
feather-tubes of the juvenal plumage, referred to above. At about
this age, the young bird begins the “combing” process, by which the
sheaths of these feather tubes are removed, as described above, and
a marvelous change begins to take place in a remarkably short time,
as the sheaths are removed and fall in a shower in and about the
nest. Professor Herrick (1935) says: “Thus at one stroke one or
more of the juvenal contour feathers are exposed and quickly fluff
out in all their shapely proportions. * * * The change actually
occupies about twelve hours, and it is really not complete, since
the sheaths of the wing- and tail-quills flake off gradually, as in
other birds, and those feathers of head and neck out of reach of
the ‘comb’ remain sheathed for a considerable time longer.”
By the time that the young bird leaves the nest, at the ago of 8 or
9 days, it is in nearly full juvenal plumage; the wings are fairly
well grown, but the tail is still very short. In this plumage the
soft plumage above is “buffy brown,” each feather tipped with
white; the under parts are silvery white, tinged with pale gray on
the belly and with pale buff on the breast and throat. During late
summer and early fall, most, if not all, of this juvenal contour
plumage is molted and replaced by the first winter plumage, but the
flight feathers of the wings and tail are retained until spring.
This first winter plumage is much like that of the adult, but it is
more brownish on the head and back and more greenish olive on the
scapulars than in adults; the throat is more buffy and the upper
breast more grayish buff than in the adult; the young bird’s tail
is quite different, the grayish white tips are smaller and are not
bordered inwardly with the dusky space, which is clearly visible
in the adult tail. The molts are apparently the same as in the
yellow-billed cuckoo; the adult plumage seems to be acquired before
the young birds return from their first winter in the south, but we
have no specimens showing a spring molt.
_Food._--The black-billed cuckoo is just as good a caterpillar
destroyer as the yellow-billed; in fact the food habits of the
two species are almost identical in all respects. An abundance
of caterpillars in a locality is very likely to bring with it an
invasion of cuckoos. Frank L. Farley writes to me: “As far as I am
aware, the black-billed cuckoo was unknown in central Alberta until
the summer of 1923. That year the central portion of the Province
was infested with tent caterpillars, which, in 1924–25, assumed
plague proportions. Entire bluffs of poplar trees, several acres
in extent, were entirely denuded of their leaves, while houses and
other buildings were overrun with the pests.” In June 1924 the
cuckoos began to appear for the first time, birds entirely unknown
to the residents. “Although caterpillars gradually disappeared
after 1925, cuckoos were reported from widely separated parts of
central Alberta, the most northerly one being about 150 miles north
of Camrose, which is in latitude 53° N. The presence of cuckoos
and caterpillars in the same territory during these years would
tend to bear out the claims of other observers, that the insects
are particularly relished by these birds, which, in some uncanny
manner, are able to locate infested territory far removed from
their usual place of residence.”
Forbush (1927) says:
In seasons when caterpillars of any species are abundant,
cuckoos usually become common in the infested localities.
They follow the caterpillars, and where such food is
plentiful, the size of their broods seems to increase.
During an invasion of forest tent caterpillars in Stoneham,
Massachusetts, in May, 1898, Mr. Frank H. Mosher watched
one of these birds that caught and ate 36 of these insects
inside of five minutes. He saw another in Malden eat 29,
rest a few minutes and then eat 14 more. In July, 1899, he
reported a family of these birds in a locality infested
with the gipsy moth, and said that they were eating large
quantities of gipsy caterpillars. In June, 1895, Mr.
Henry Shaw reported great numbers of these cuckoos in
Dorchester feeding on the same pests. The late Professor
Walter B. Barrows, of Michigan, an extremely conservative
ornithologist, is responsible for the statement that in
several instances remains of over 100 tent caterpillars
have been taken from a single cuckoo’s stomach. The
Black-billed Cuckoo, because more common than the
Yellow-billed, is the species that most commonly attacks
this insect in New England orchards. During an invasion of
army worms, Professor S. A. Forbes found that 95 per cent
of the food of this species consisted of that caterpillar.
F. H. King (1883), writing of the food of the black-billed cuckoo
in Wisconsin, says: “Of thirteen specimens examined, nine had
eaten caterpillars--among them were eight of the fall web-worms
(_Hyphantria textor_), thirty-three of the oak caterpillars
(_Dryocampa senatoria_), one of the Io caterpillars (_Saturnia
io_), six of the antiopa caterpillars (_Vanessa antiopa_), and
one of the caterpillars of the archippus butterfly (_Danais
archippus_). One contained five larvae of the large saw-fly
(_Cymbex americana_); six, twenty-five grasshoppers; one, a
cricket; two, ten beetles; and two, two harvest-men.”
Other authors have charged this cuckoo with eating minute mollusks
and other small animals, fishes and aquatic larvae, fruits and
berries, and even the eggs and young of small birds. On the latter
point, Henry D. Minot (1877) says that “they do great mischief in
destroying the eggs of other useful birds. Like arrant cowards, as
they are, they take opportunities to approach stealthily the nests
of many birds, whom they would be afraid to encounter, and then
feast on the eggs of the absent parents, after which they hurry
away. They are scarcely less destructive in this way than the black
snakes, though I have never known them to kill young birds.”
_Behavior._--The two cuckoos are so much alike in haunts, habits,
and behavior that most of what I have said about the yellow-billed
would apply equally well to this species. The black-billed is
rather more swift on the wing than the other, but it flies in the
same graceful manner. It is the same shy recluse of the shady
retreats, among the dense foliage of the woods and shade trees,
unafraid to frequent the orchards and gardens in search for its
food, but shunning any intimacy with human beings; we hear its
wandering voice but seldom see more than a fleeting glimpse of its
graceful form as it fades away into the shadows.
In defense of its eggs or young the black-billed cuckoo is often
quite courageous. Olive Thorne Miller (1892) writes charmingly
of her experiences with an incubating pair of these cuckoos; she
watched them change places on the nest, and found the female quite
confiding, but the male never became reconciled to her presence:
It happened that I arrived when the mother was away, and
the head of the household in charge. No sooner did I appear
on the path than he flew off the nest with great bustle,
thus betraying himself at once; but he did not desert his
post of protector. He perched on a branch somewhat higher
than my head, and five or six feet away, and began calling,
a low “coo-oo.” With every cry he opened his mouth very
wide, as though to shriek at the top of his voice, and the
low cry that came out was so ludicrously inadequate to his
apparent effort that it was very droll. In this performance
he made fine display of the inside of his mouth and throat,
which looked, from where I stood, like black satin. * * *
Finding that his voice did not drive me away, the bird
resorted to another method; he tried intimidation. First
he threw himself into a most curious attitude, humping his
shoulders and opening his tail like a fan, then spreading
his wings and resting the upper end of them on his tail,
which made at the back a sort of scoop effect. Every time
he uttered the cry he lifted wings and tail together, and
let them fall slowly back to their natural position. It was
the queerest bird performance I ever saw.